Israelis bury 5 victims of Bulgaria attackJERUSALEM (AP) — Devastated mourners grasped at dirt atop fresh graves and screamed in agony Friday as they buried the five Israeli victims of a bombing in Bulgaria — an attack that Israel has blamed on Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah. Two days after the deadly blast in a popular vacation spot, investigators in Bulgaria and in several other countries were still struggling to confirm the attacker’s identity. Bulgarian prosecutors said the at...

Attack on Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria kills 7SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Israel vowed to strike back at Iran for a brazen daylight bombing Wednesday that killed at least seven people on a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks attributed to Iran that have targeted Israelis and Jews overseas and threatened to escalate a shadow war between the two arch-enemies. Iran has denied involvement in the past but did not comment on Wednesday’s attack....

UK police accuse 3 of Pakistan terror trainingLONDON (AP) — Three British Muslims - including a convert who was featured in a documentary about radical Islam and a former London police support officer - have been charged with traveling to Pakistan for terror training, police said early Thursday. Scotland Yard said in a statement that Richard Dart, 29, Imran Mahmood, 21, and Jahangir Alom, 26, had traveled to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 “with the intention of committing acts of terroris...

Clashes spread to new areas in Syrian capitalBEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces attacked rebels with helicopter gunships in the heart of Damascus on Tuesday, escalating a campaign to crush their opponents as clashes spread to new areas, illustrating the rebels’ growing reach. Cracks of gunfire and explosions echoed inside the capital for a third day, including a firefight near the country’s parliament, in an unprecedented challenge to government rule in President Bashar Assad’s seat ...

Roadside bomb kills 12 Shiites in PakistanPARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A minibus carrying Shiite Muslims hit a roadside bomb in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 12 of them in the country’s latest apparent sectarian attack. The incident took place shortly after the victims left Spai, a predominantly Shiite village in the Orakzai tribal area, said local government official Jamil Khan. They were headed for the nearby district of Kohat, he said. Pakistan is a majority Sunni Musl...

NKorea promotes Kim Jong Un to marshalPYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been granted the title of marshal, state media reported Wednesday, cementing his status as the authoritarian nation’s top military official as he makes key changes to the million-man force. The decision to award Kim, who already serves as supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, was made Tuesday by the nation’s top military, government and political officials, state media ...

Israel’s Netanyahu loses key coalition partnerJERUSALEM (AP) — Israel plunged toward a political crisis Tuesday after the largest party in the government quit, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in charge of a hard-line coalition opposed to most Mideast peace moves. The moderate Kadima Party voted to pull out of the government in a feud over attempts to reform the country’s military draft. The move, just two months after Kadima joined the coalition, appeared to push the country clo...

Good deeds to celebrate Mandela’s 94thJOHANNESBURG (AP) — Annah Nankie Nhlapo has been waiting 22 years for a home. On a dusty narrow road on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the foundation of her new house is finally taking shape. Over the next five days, to commemorate the U.N.-mandated Nelson Mandela International Day, housing charity Habitat for Humanity is working with volunteers to build 67 houses across South Africa, in honor of Mandela’s 67 years of political service. Nhlapo...

Clinton to Egypt’s Morsi: Find way out of crisisCAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used her first meeting with Egypt’s new Islamist president to press Mohammed Morsi to start a dialogue with military leaders as a way of preserving the country’s transition to democracy. Clinton voiced support for the “full transition” to civilian rule at a time when Morsi’s backers are in a political standoff with the generals who have ruled since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted l...

Suicide bomber kills 23 at Afghan weddingKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up among guests at a wedding hall Saturday in northern Afghanistan, killing 23 people including a prominent ex-Uzbek warlord turned lawmaker who was the father of the bride. The attack was the latest to target top figures from the country’s minority groups and dealt a blow to efforts to unify ethnic factions amid growing concerns that the country could descend into civil war after foreign...

UN team investigates reported Syria massacreBEIRUT (AP) — U.N. observers investigating a reported mass killing in a Syrian village on Saturday found pools of blood in homes and spent bullets, mortars and artillery shells, adding details to the emerging picture of what anti-regime activists have called one of the deadliest events of Syria’s uprising. Dozens of people have already been buried in a mass grave, and activists are still struggling to determine the total number of people kille...

Freed Israeli soldier a mystery despite exposureJERUSALEM (AP) — Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a lopsided prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows — showing up at parties, sporting events and even writing a newspaper column. Even so, the former Israeli soldier remains an enigma. He has refrained from giving interviews and has shared few details about his 5 1/2 years of captivity in a Gaza basement. But he hasn’t vanished from sight — quite the oppos...

China’s economic growth slows despite stimulusBEIJING (AP) — China’s economic growth slowed to a new three-year low in the latest quarter as exports and consumer spending weakened. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 7.6 percent in the three months ending in June over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter’s 8.1 percent, data showed Friday. That was the lowest since the first quarter of 2009 during the depths of the global financial crisis. Export growth has fallen steadily...

In historic visit, Clinton reaches out to LaosVIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Decades after the U.S. gave Laos a horrific distinction as the world’s most heavily bombed nation per person, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged Wednesday to help get rid of millions of unexploded bombs that still pockmark the impoverished country — and still kill. The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on the North Vietnamese ally during its “secret war” between 1964 and 1973 — about a ton of ...

Activists: Massacre in Syria kills more than 100BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists reported a new massacre late Thursday in the central Hama province, saying regime forces killed more than 100 people in shelling and other attacks. There were few details on the attack, which was reported by the Local Coordination Committees activist group and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said it was aware of up to 100 killed from sources on the ground, but the group had ...

9 dead in Mont Blanc summer avalancheCHAMONIX, France (AP) — They set out before dawn, hoping to conquer a mountaineering classic: Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest peak. But below the prized summit, a climber is believed to have accidentally caused a slab of ice to snap off, triggering an avalanche Thursday that swept nine climbers to their deaths and injured a dozen others. As the sheet of snow and ice thundered down the steep slope, several other climbers managed to turn aw...

Arrrgh: It’s a bad news day for London’s OlympicsLONDON (AP) — With the Olympics just two weeks away, embarrassing logistical problems about security, staff, phones and traffic made the mood Thursday in London as gloomy as the weather. British lawmakers clamored for an explanation of why the armed forces need to field more troops to protect the games, eclipsing the day that U.S. track star Michael Johnson held the Olympic flame aloft at sunrise at the ancient monument at Stonehenge. London’s...

Guantanamo drug probe raises new questionsSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A newly released Pentagon report says there is no evidence that officials at Guantanamo Bay used mind-altering drugs to interrogate prisoners, but lawyers for men held at the U.S. base in Cuba said Thursday that the findings still raise troubling questions. The report by the Department of Defense Inspector General found that some detainees were interrogated while they were also being treated by doctors at the priso...

UN envoy presses Syrian peace plan with Iran, IraqBAGHDAD (AP) — The U.N.’s special envoy on the Syrian crisis sought to build support for his peace efforts Tuesday with the leaders of Iran and Iraq, saying President Bashar Assad has agreed to a plan to quell the bloodshed in the most violent areas of Syria and then expand the operation to the whole country. Top diplomat Kofi Annan said at a news conference in Iran that the plan still must be presented to the Syrian opposition. But he said hi...

UK police charge 3 more men with terror offensesLONDON (AP) — Three men were accused in a British court Tuesday of building a makeshift bomb and making other preparations for a terrorist attack against the far-right English Defense League. Hours later, police charged three other men arrested in the same case with the same terrorism offenses. All six were among seven men arrested last week in central England after a search of an impounded vehicle turned up hidden guns and other weapons, prom...